Happy Birthday to Me…….

Almost to the end of another month.  And the end of another year in my life.  I will turn 80 on Thursday, which is October 2.  So to celebrate we, Ann and I will be doing our usual thing.  This time however, we will be birding at Uvalde, Texas.  A friend has invited us to use his bird blind down there, with promises of brand new birds for our life list.

We are leaving Wednesday morning Oct. 1, and will return Friday, October 3.  So I am looking forward to posting a blog over the weekend, hopefully with a bunch of new images of some new birds.

This will probably be my last post until the weekend, so here are a few recent photos that I have gotten locally.

Northern Cardinal

This Northern Cardinal was at the bird blind at San Angelo State Park.  I thought he was too pretty to ignore.

Great Roadrunner on the hood of our car.

We happened to look out the door of the blind, and we spotted a Greater Roadrunner on our Ford Escape.  Fortunately, besides the camera that was mounted on the tripod, I also had a second Canon 70D with my 100-400mm lens handy.  I grabbed it and got these shots before the roadrunner hopped off and ran towards the brush.

Greater Roadrunner on our car.

Not seeing as many birds that we had hoped, we took a drive around the park for a few minutes.  Not too many birds in the building.  A year or so ago, they, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, took upon themselves to spray the thick mesquite that is in abundance in the park.  The thought was that that the brushy trees were sapping too much of the valuable water of the area.  That was probably true, but in killling the trees, they also destroyed valuable habitat.  I believe that is why the populace of birds, hawks, and wildlife in general has declined.

But having said that, we was this Loggerhead Shrike on a thorny, dead branch.

Loggerhed Shrike

So I apologize for the short post, but I hope to make for it in my next post.  But no promises, as I will then be an old man of 80, so we can get absent-minded.  But I would hate to have to start visiting the senior center downtown, because that is where all of the old people hang out. 🙂